On Tue, 25 Dec 2001 23:34:32 +0000, Tony Morgan
>In article
>
>>In article <3C28F5DC.66BCD40E@earthlink.net>, sumlin@earthlink.net
>>says...
>>> I am sure digital zoom is off, but I cannot find any manual focus switch on
>>> the LCD anywhere. However when I manually adjust the lens (turn it) it will
>>> come into focus. What is the purpose of that adjustment and how does it work
>>> with autofocus? Does moving one overrides the other in some way?
>>On the PC9 the manual focus isn't on the LCD, it is a button on the side
>>of the camera that says 'focus' This is a toggle to turn manual focus
>>on or off. When you are on manual focus, you will see a little hand at
>>the bottom of the bottom of the screen with an 'f' in it.
>>
>>It shouldn't affect zoom one way or the other.
>I'm not sure if this is true. If you manually focus at WA then zoom to
>max Tele then you're unlikely to still have sharp (optimal) focus.
This is correct, and probably the cause of the original
poster's problems...
>For this reason it's best practice when using manual focus to initially
>focus at max Tele so as to maintain focus at all zoom settings.
This is, unfortunately, not always correct, since often zooms
do not hold good focus even when moving from tele to
wide. With Sony camcorder zooms, though, often the error
is greatest in the last part of the tele range, and short
of this area, the zooms hold focus well enough to follow
TM's advice... (one should check the individual lens
first, with the camera hooked up to a good TV, before
relying on this technique for manual focus). BTW, in my
days checking Nikkor zooms, it was common to find TM's
advice printed in the lens manual, yet rare to find that
the lenses held focus well enough to make it advisable
to follow that advice...! ;-)